Summary: “For God, who said ‘let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6

Life teaches us many lessons and we can learn a lot even from the childhood games we used to play. In Blind Man’s Bluff, for those who do not remember or have never played this game before, one child is blindfolded and then he or she has to look for and touch another person. To add to the fun, as the blindfolded child tries to feel his or her way groping and stumbling over obstacles already in the way, new obstacles are put in his or her way. This game really paints a very good picture of the way many people go through life - blindfolded, groping in the darkness, stumbling and tripping over many obstacles in their way. Only this time there is nothing funny about it as it harmfully affects us both here and in eternity. This is because, as descendants of Adam, we are separated from God who is the only source of life and His life is the light of men. God’s love and grace made provision to meet this need and this is the theme that runs throughout the Scriptures and is even revealed in the name of God. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He revealed His name to be Yahweh, meaning I Am Who I Am. His name, however, was only fully revealed by Jesus Christ when He described Himself with the words “I am the bread of life. I am the door. I am the good shepherd; I am the way, the truth and the life, I am the resurrection and the life; I am the light of the world.” Jesus Christ is the light of the world. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Christ came to bring light into a dark world and His light is the light of the world. He came that we might have life and to let His light shine in our hearts.

The world, unfortunately, loves and prefers the darkness to the light. When the light of Christ confronted the world, the world very clearly said that they would rather have darkness. They hated the light and fled from it. The light of Christ is rejected by the world because as it dispels the darkness it reveals evil and shows the right way to deal with it. In the dark evil can appear to be something else but in the light it can be clearly discerned. The world therefore preferred to live without the light because they didn’t want the light to expose the evil things they were doing. They wanted to continue doing what they wanted to do.

God’s kingdom is the kingdom of light. His servants know whom they are serving and what they are doing. On the other hand, since Satan’s kingdom is a kingdom of darkness, most of those in his kingdom do not know the true identity of the one whom they are serving, or the true nature of what they are doing. And to make sure it stays that way the kingdom of darkness operates in such a way that those who can bring in light are kept out. It does this by doing things in secret. If what they were doing was really helpful then it should not be hidden or only made available to a select few but to everyone. The kingdom of darkness also tries to hide the nature of its activities by portraying a light that is clearly not the light of Christ. Many Christians have unknowingly joined the kingdom of darkness believing that the light being referred to was the light of Christ. A Christian who believes that he or she has come into the light of Christ by joining any group can only mean that he or she has been walking in darkness. If this is true then God is a liar because His word declares that He has delivered us from the kingdom of darkness. But if this is not true then what that group is practicing is a lie and we know who the father of lies is. Another lie of the kingdom of darkness is to make its members believe they are helping the cause of Christ when in reality this is not the case. We can only help the cause of Christ when we belong to Him and good works without Christ does not amount to anything. The light of Christ always reveals the truth and glorifies God. It reveals that we cannot count on our good works to save us - only Christ can save us. But when Christ saves us He also transforms us and the evidence of that transformation is seen as the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, the needs of the homeless met and the street children taken care of. Our good works only have value with Christ for without Him we can not do anything of value for Him.